Wednesday, February 15, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Please RSVP to the Temple
Ever like a poet whose poetry you barely grasp but love anyway? That is how I feel about the late Leonard Cohen’s work. I would like to explore with you his last offerings in his acclaimed work “You Want it Darker.” It is filled with depth-filled Jewish sentiments and abiding humanity.
No doubt you have heard about the groundhog predicting 6 more weeks of winter. Our tradition wisely anticipates the same by holding Jewish Arbor Day Tu bishvat this time of year. We have a wonderful dinner planned for this Friday, February 10th at 6:30 pm with special cuisine designed to help us observe this nature holiday. Look forward to your being there. Please RSVP to the temple.
Rabbi Liebowitz, as the chair of the Spartanburg Green Congregations, is pleased to announce a meeting this evening at Central Methodist Church on Church Street at 7 o’clock p.m. It is featuring among other presenters, Newt Hardie and The Trees Coalition responding to the threat of invasive floral species in our area. Refreshments will be offered. It is a brief meeting lasting approximately an hour and is well worth attending.
Spartanburg Green Congregations is pleased to present an evening with Newt Hardie and The Trees Coalition
February 2nd, 7:00 PM at Central Methodist
The Trees Coalition is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit group located in Spartanburg, South Carolina that was formed to educate & inspire communities to care for trees, especially those planted along the streets and trails. The Trees Coalition is an expansion of the Kudzu Coalition, a group that pioneered herbicide-free kudzu removal. We are a mix of volunteers and paid landscapers who train and work alongside neighborhoods, churches, and businesses to provide help in caring for their trees.
Mission
• To educate the community on the threats to and proper care of roadside, trail, park and green space trees.
• To engage the community in providing proper tree care, including the removal of invasive plants.
• To enhance community trees by hands-on activities to improve the health of our trees.
• We do NOT plant trees in new areas.
What We Do
• Educate neighborhoods, churches, businesses, and students regarding proper planting, pruning & mulching practices.
• Educate all on identification of and on removal of non-native invasives trees such as Tree of Heaven and Chinese Parasol
Tree; and vines such as ivy, kudzu, and wisteria; and shrubs such as privet, elaeagnus, and leather leaf mahonia with and without
chemicals.
• Offer kudzu removal education through Kudzu Kollege.
• Encourage completion of the Clemson Extension Tree Steward Class.
• Facilitate activities such as Trees parties to provide hands-on education and beautify local areas including gateways and
intersections throughout the community.
TWO PROPHETS, ONE SOUL: REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. AND RABBI ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
By Harold M. Schulweis
More than a coincidence of calendar couples the anniversary of the births of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., January 15 and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, January 11. Two men from different geographies, color, creed, theological background were joined in a spiritual kinship whose legacy address our own times.
Heschel, a Polish immigrant, scion of a long line of Chasidic rabbis, Professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and King, an American descendant of slaves, a compassionate protector of the oppressed, charismatic orator, writer and theologian, marched side-by- side from Selma to Montgomery to protest the pernicious racism that poisoned America and humiliated its African-American citizens. A host of white citizens, filled with venomous hate, surrounded the marchers, jeered and spat upon them. But as Heschel declared later: “When I marched in Selma, my feet were praying.” It is important not only to protest against evil but to be seen protesting. Faith in the goodness and oneness of God is powerfully expressed through the language of feet, hands, and spine.
Heschel and King, these two contemporary prophets remind us to eschew the invidious “one downsmanship” that compares one people’s sufferings against another. Comparative victimizing is a divisive exercise that diminishes the anguish of our pain and replaces empathy with insensitivity. King and Heschel were united in the kinship of suffering and the shared vision of great dreams. Strengthened by the tradition of both biblical testaments, they defied the killers of the dreams quotations out of their bodies.
Describing Heschel as “one of the great men of our age, a truly great prophet”, Martin Luther King declared: “He has been with us in many struggles. I remember marching from Selma to Montgomery, how he stood at my side…I remember very well when we were in Chicago for the Conference on Religion and Race…to a great extent his speech inspired clergymen of all faiths to do something they had not done before.”
At that conference Heschel reminded the assembly that the first Conference on Religion and Race took place in Egypt where the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. Moses’ words were: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let My people go” and the Pharaoh retorted “Who is the Lord that I should heed this voice and let Israel go.” That summit meeting in Egypt has not come to an end. Pharaoh is still not ready to capitulate. The Exodus began, but we are still stranded in the desert.
It was easier for the Israelites to cross the Red Sea than for men and women of different color to enter our institutions, our colleges, our universities,”How can we love our neighbor”, Heschel asks rhetorically when we flee from him and leave him abandoned, congested in the neglected ghettos of the inner city?
After the assassination of King, Heschel said of him “Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America. God has sent him to us…his mission is sacred…I call upon every Jew to hearken to his voice, to share his vision, to follow in his way.
The whole future of America will depend upon the influence of Dr. King.”
King and Heschel speak to our community in the diction of the ancient prophets. They dare remind us that while “some are guilty, all are responsible.” That moral responsibility transcends class, creed and race. Heschel and King taught us that the opposite of good is not evil but in- difference and that silence in the presence of evil amounts to consent. They charged us to transcend the cleavages that distract us from the solidarity of our goal, and to publicly stand together against the twin evils of racism and anti-Semitism.
The calendrical coincidence of their birth anniversaries calls upon us to resurrect the moral passion and wisdom that in- fused their lives. Our celebration of their birthdays offers testimony to the immortality of their influence. Their creeds, dogmas, pigmentation, like ours, are different. But our tears are the same.